Hello, just to give an update. since my last message Ebay did start showing the watch number on the item view page for buy it now items.... but only if it had 5 watchers or more, It may have been due to the number of complaints made, but talk about stubborn! they could have went back to showing watchers starting at 1 watcher and fixed this issue completely. My sales have not improved since my last message. The 5 watchers rule would probably confuse buyers even more because now 4 watchers looks like 0.
They have been using this system (only showing watchers if 5 or more are watching) for about 10 months now, and it has become worse since first implemented..... Potential Buyers seem to have caught-on to how this works.... I am regularly seeing the watch count on some of my items rise to 5 only to fall back to 4 within hours, I believe this is because once it is highlighted as having 5 watchers some watchers who aren't quite ready to buy will take if off their watch list (and perhaps add it to their browser favorites instead) to bring it back to 4 reducing the perceived popularity of the item. Very sneaky behavior... but understandable: if someone has found item they like, but need time to think about it, then they wouldn't want to draw extra attention to the item and boost its perceived popularity, especially if they were thinking of making an offer.
This case of 5 watchers quickly switching back to 4 is happening to my items more and more frequently. If an item (especially when offered at a low price) was allowed to attract watchers organically starting from 1, then I believe it would more quickly get to ten, which would then give it extra promotion as a popular item displayed under item view pages for related items across the site.... giving it a much higher chance of selling quickly!
